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The speed of light in a locale is always equal to c according to the observer who is there. That is, every infinitesimal region of spacetime may be assigned its own proper time, and the speed of light according to the proper time at that region is always c. This is the case whether or not a given region is occupied by an observer.
The speed of gravitational waves in the general theory of relativity is equal to the speed of light in vacuum, c. [3] Within the theory of special relativity, the constant c is not only about light; instead it is the highest possible speed for any interaction in nature.
The free-fall time is the characteristic time that would take a body to collapse under its own gravitational attraction, if no other forces existed to oppose the collapse.. As such, it plays a fundamental role in setting the timescale for a wide variety of astrophysical processes—from star formation to helioseismology to supernovae—in which gravity plays a dominant ro
Changes in physical constants are not meaningful if they result in an observationally indistinguishable universe. For example, a "change" in the speed of light c would be meaningless if accompanied by a corresponding "change" in the elementary charge e so that the ratio e 2:c (the fine-structure constant) remained unchanged. [8]
Because, according to the general theory, the speed of a light wave depends on the strength of the gravitational potential along its path, these time delays should thereby be increased by almost 2 × 10 −4 sec when the radar pulses pass near the sun. Such a change, equivalent to 60 km in distance, could now be measured over the required path ...
The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission launched in 2002 consists of two probes, nicknamed "Tom" and "Jerry", in polar orbit around the Earth measuring differences in the distance between the two probes in order to more precisely determine the gravitational field around the Earth, and to track changes that occur over time ...
At the same time, gravity will attempt to contract the system even further, and will do so on a free-fall time = / /, where is the universal gravitational constant, is the gas density within the region, and = / is the gas number density for mean mass per particle (μ = 3.9 × 10 −24 g is appropriate for molecular hydrogen with 20% helium by ...
Indeed, in a frame moving (in direction) with velocity relative to the rest frame, the clocks at a nearby position are ahead by (/) (/) (to the first order); so an acceleration (that changes speed by / per time ) makes clocks at the position to be ahead by (/) (/), that is, tick at a rate